Written by C. Thomas Work, RMF 100th Anniversary Co-Chair

If you are seated awaiting a concert by our splendid Reading Symphony Orchestra, more likely than not you played an instrument or sang in a school ensemble as a child.  Before research strongly linked childhood music education and adult audiences of real-time music performance, a core group of our community’s leaders intuitively knew the connection when they incorporated both the RSO and the Reading Musical Foundation (RMF) on the same day in 1927.

Their mission for the RSO was clear – perpetuate an orchestra that had been performing in Reading for several decades.  But what did they have in mind for RMF?

RMF’s purposes were to build an endowment to support the county’s music performing organizations and to advance music education and appreciation.  The endowment and financial support pieces made immediate sense, because the RSO and its older sibling, the Reading Choral Society, had at times been fueled by fumes.  

It would take years to give form to the founders’ commitment to music education and appreciation.   Investing in children’s music education would breed performers, teachers, audiences, and volunteers in the arts.  It would inculcate in children the skills employers in all occupations value most – reliability, accuracy, discipline, and team-mindedness.     

Today, RMF continues to provide financial support to organizations that perform in Berks County.  It has consistently been the RSO’s single largest source of financial support.  RMF is also the largest provider of music scholarships for private lessons, instrument upgrades, and enrichment opportunities that benefit our county’s children.  For the last two decades, those scholarships have been available on need as well as merit.  Many have tried but failed to find another organization like RMF in the United States!

Last year, RMF Awarded:

• 593 scholarships totaling $304,125
  • 11 College Tuition Scholarships Totaling $70,400
  • 24 Instrument Upgrade Scholarships Totaling $9,700
  • 134 Pre-College Merit Scholarships Totaling $69,325
  • 334 Need-Sensitive Private Study Scholarships Totaling $104,000
  • 83 Summer Camp Scholarships Totaling $45,900
• 61 grants totaling $322,000 to 41 area organizations - among the Foundation’s newest ventures are music therapy and digital music production
• 130 instruments placed through Operation Replay

You can follow RMF’s progress in achieving our founders’ goals by looking at the timeline on RMF’s 100th website (QR code and link below).  Plotting growth in programs and offerings over the last century, that timeline is graphic proof of consistent evolution and self-awareness that no mission may be static and blind to new challenges.

We have a lot more in store for the next 100 years and invite you to learn of it on our website this year as we celebrate the past 100 years and welcome another!  Learn more about RMF’s inspiring history and plans for the future at www.rmf100.org.